Balestri sets pace in 3rd controlled practice

Dario Balestri has set the pace in the third round of controlled practice at the World Championships in Gubbio, the Italian heading a Capricorn 1-2 from team-mate Luca Redaelli. The third different driver to top the time sheets today, Balestri took full advantage of the hot conditions as the morning’s pace setter Dominic Greiner struggled with the rising temperature. Star of yesterday’s free practice, Simon Kurzbuch would complete the Top 3 for a strong points haul, the heat seeding for qualifying being determined by each drivers best two points finishes over the four controlled practice rounds.

‘These are the same conditions as last race we did and all is perfect’, was Balestri’s reaction to topping the round.  The former Euro Nitro Series Champion continued, ‘We knew we have a good car for these conditions’.  Running Capricorn’s own brand Tesla engines, he added, ‘the engines are also better because we tested a lot for this’.  With the end of practice now in sight, some drivers having conducted 22 practice session, for the final controlled practice Balestri will ‘change nothing’ concluding ‘I hope for more hot runs’.

Despite a first lap mistake that chunked his rear right tyre and broke the left rear body post, Redaelli was only 0.012 off Balestri over the 3-laps.  Joking ‘I’m am always near to first position’, he said even after his first lap drama the LAB CO3 was ‘still good’. Having made a shock change to try reduce the performance drop caused by tyre wear over the run he said the change was ‘good’. With Capricorn boss Patrizio Rossi looking over the car after the run, the 25-year-old said based on his advise they will make some tweaks to the drive train to help reduce operating temperatures within the car.

‘Had good pace for the hot conditions’ was reigning 1:8 World Champion’s Kurzbuch reaction to his P3 time.  The Shepherd driver said for 3-laps his Velox V10 was ‘perfect’ but they need to work on consistency for 5-minutes.  Changing shock oil and the rear downstops for the round the Swiss driver said this got him the steering he was looking for but maybe it was too much as the car had become a bit edgy to drive.  Looking to make changes to make the car more stable in the rear he said with this it should give him the consistency he needs for qualifying.  Also pleased with his Novarossi engine in the hot conditions he will change over to his qualifying engine for the final practice in preparation for tomorrow’s opening qualifier.

‘Improving every run’ was Robert Pietsch’s reaction to getting P4 in CP3.  Running the radio tray in his MTX5 ‘loose’, this was to gave the Mugen designer a little more steering.  Experiencing some issues with the bump in the fast sweeper which was causing the car to ‘step out sometimes’, he will adjust the toe-in for the final practice to try eliminate this.  Having topped the previous session, Mugen team-mate Takaaki Shimo would manage only a P13 for the round.

While his run would end slightly early as a result of a stripped gear caused by a bearing failure on the gearbox shaft, Alessio Mazzeo would set the fifth fastest time.  The Serpent driver said prior to his problem his 748 was ‘very fast’ going on to describe the set-up as ‘almost perfect’.  Team-mate Greiner would end up P7, the German saying, ‘we have less steering in this temperature so we will try something to find steering for the next one’.  While expecting the temperatures to still be high for the final practice, he added, ‘today is the hottest day according to the forecast and tomorrow & Thursday are showing cooler so it (the loss of steering in the heat) is no problem’.

Completing the Top 6, Bruno Coelho said his Xray was ‘OK’ but he ‘didn’t get three clean laps’.  Using the early part of the run to tune his Max engine he would make a mistake on the third lap of his first proper attempt at a time resulting in a broken tyre.  Looking to the final practice the Portuguese ace said he would make ‘no changes’ and instead ‘just drive it now’.  Asked about his car for a 5-minute run he replied, ‘we are ok’ then pausing before continuing ‘well I hope so’.  Also making the Top 10 for the round would be Serpent team-mates Mark Green & Tadahiko Sahashi in P8 & 9 behind Greiner with Capricorn’s Kyle Branson 10th.

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